*A. 


LOYAL  PUBLICATION  SOCIETY, 

8  6  3  BROADWAY. 

s'-  *  7  MnUcIft  JyW 

•/Vo.  98. — I9 art  IS. 


To  Jlis  Excellency  Abraham  Lincoln, 

President  of  the  United  States  : 

Most  Respected  Sir, — Since  I  last  bad  the  honor  to  address 
you,  in  January,  1862,  the  courage,  skill  and  perseverance  man¬ 
ifested  by  you  in  your  efforts  to  maintain  and  defend  our  union 
of  States,  with  all  their  rightful  authority  and  power,  has  com¬ 
manded  my  heartfelt  gratitude,  confidence  and  respect. 

Your  efforts  to  bring  back  the  Rebel  States  to  accept  the 
supremacy  of  the  Constitution  and  the  laws,  with  the  general 
course  of  your  Administration,  have  compelled  me  to  believe 
that  there  is  nothing  that  you  have  sought  and  desired  so  much, 
as  to  know  and  apply  the  best  means  to  secure  a  lasting  and 
honorable  peace,  and  to  overcome,  with  the  least  possible  ex¬ 
pense  of  life  and  treasure,  a  rebellion  that  embodies  in  itself 
the  sum  of  all  that  is  vile. 

It  would  have  been  too  much  to  expect  from  any  human 
being,  that  such  a  complication  of  difficulties  and  dangers  as 
those  you  have  encountered,  should  have  been  met  and  over¬ 
come  without  errors  and  mistakes  as  to  the  best  means  to  restore 
peace  to  our  country.  ^ 

Our  Union  of  States,  which  has,  from  the  commencement  of 
the  government,  continued  to  spread  its  protecting  shield  over 
all  the  rights  reserved  to  each  of  the  individual  States,  can 
never  be  abandoned  to  the  despotism  of  slavery,  or  the  heresy 
of  secession,  while  there  is  life  and  power  to  maintain  and  de¬ 
fend  it. 

In  my  letter,  I  endeavored  to  show  that  nothing  but  the  cor- 


324.173 

c  mi 


9 


2 


rupting  power  of  buying  and  selling  human  beings,  could  ever 
so  far  demoralize  a  people  as  to  cause  them  to  deluge  a  nation 
in  blood,  in  order  to  perpetuate  an  institution  that  enslaves 
thousands  of  their  own  children. 

It  must  be  apparent  to  all  who  desire  the  preservation  of  the 
Union,  that  the  slaves  who  now  cultivate  the  fields,  and  who 
perform  a  large  portion  of  the  mechanical  labor  of  the  South, 
are  as  much  a  power  to  be  met  and  overcome,  as  the  Rebel  ar¬ 
mies  that  are  now  doing  their  utmost  to  spread  death  and  deso¬ 
lation  over  our  country. 

I  believe  with  you,  that  it  is  impossible  for  a  people  who  are 
determined  to  perpetuate  slavery  at  the  expense  of  all  the  hor¬ 
rors  of  a  civil  war,  to  continue  to  hold  slaves  and  live  in  peace 
with  a  Government  having  its  foundation  on  the  equal  and 
inalienable  rights  of  man. 

In  relation  to  the  propriety  of  the  employment  of  negroes  as  a 
war  measure,  or  means  to  conquer  the  rebellion,  I  fear  the 
greatest  mistakes  of  the  war  have  been  made. 

It  has  taken  time  to  educate  the  people  to  see  and  feel  the 
absolute  necessity  of  attacking  the  rebellion  in  the  only  way  by 
which  it  can  be  speedily  and  effectually  overcome,  aud  at  the 
same  time  extinguish  a  cause  of  national  sorrow,  demoralization, 
and  disgrace. 

You  have,  with  great  propriety,  asked  the  question,  “  Why 
should  negroes  do  anything  for  us,  if  we  will  do  nothing  for 
them 

You  have  said  rightly,  that  “if  they  stake  their  lives  for  ns, 
:they  must  be  prompted  by  the  strongest  motives.” 

The  correctness  and  wisdom  of  that  opinion  cannot  be  called 
In  question. 

It  is  greatly  to  be  deplored  that  the  Government,  and  so  many 
people  of  the  North,  with  some  of  the  officers  of  the  army,  have 
been  so  slow  to  perceive  and  adopt  the  only  effectual  means, 
which  is  to  use  the  negroes  as  a  power  by  which  this  terrible 
war  of  rebellion  can  be  put  down. 

Those  who  have  sympathized  with  rebels,  know  their  im¬ 
portance,  and  they  are  the  persons  who  have  uniformly  raised 
a  clamor  against  their  use,  and  every  other  measure  calculated 


to  strengthen  our  own  Government,  or  to  strike  the  rebellion  in 
its  weakest  place. 

It  is  cause  of  astonishment  to  all  who  realize  the  fact  that 
this  desolating  war  is  now  carried  on  against  us  by  less  than 
one-third  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  United  States. 

This  is  rendered  still  more  astonishing,  when  we  remember 
that  more  than  one-half  of  this  one-third  now  left  within  the 
limits  of  the  Rebel  States,  are  our  friends,  and  have  been  at  all 
times  ready  and  anxious  to  aid  us  so  soon  as  their  safety  and 
freedom  could  be  secured. 

I  believe  that  the  war  of  Rebellion  would  have  been  short,  if, 
at  the  commencement  of  the  struggle,  a  decided  policy  in  rela¬ 
tion  to  the  employment  of  negroes  could  have  been  adopted  and 
sustained  by  the  people  of  the  North. 

It  should  have  been  a  policy  promising  freedom,  protection, 
and  a  soldier’s  bounty  to  all  able-bodied  slaves  of  Rebels  who 
would  enlist  to  defend  the  Union,  the  Constitution,  and  the  laws 
which  made  us  a  nation.  It  should  have  been  a  policy  defined 
by  a  proclamation  to  be  constantly  kept  before  the  people,  set¬ 
ting  forth  the  fact  that  the  Government  of  the  United  States 
have  been  compelled,  in  the  most  reluctant  self-defence,  to 
adopt  these  measures,  to  meet  in  actual  'war  those  States  now 
in  open  Rebellion  against  all  the  rightful  authority  and  power 
of  the  Nation,  thereby  forcing  on  the  Government  the  painful 
necessity  of  using  all  means  known  in  civilized  warfare  in  order 
to  put  down  a  combination  of  wicked  men  who  aim  to  destroy 
the  Union  and  to  build  upon  its  ruins  a  Government  where 
“  property  shall  own  labor,”  and  of  which  the  corner-stone  shall 
be  the  enslavement  of  millions  of  human  beings. 

Our  National  Government,  after  having  organized  all  the 
public  lands  into  Territorial  Governments,  with  the  right  to  en¬ 
graft  Slavery  upon  them  all  whenever  the  people  of  any  State 
shall  so  elect,  and  after  passing,  by  an  almost  unanimous  vote  in 
Congress,  a  resolution  declaring  that  the  Government  had  no 
intention  or  desire  to  interfere  with  Slavery  in  any  manner 
where  it  was  then  legally  held,  did  further  demonstrate  the 
sincerity  of  the  Government  by  proposed  amendment  to  the 
Constitutibn  in  order  to  put  it  forever  out  of  the  power  of  Con¬ 
gress  to  interfere  with  Slavery  within  the  States. 


4 


All  these  efforts  failed  to  satisfy  the  people  of  the  South,, 
whose  present  Vice-President,  when  in  the  Convention  of  Seces¬ 
sionists,  defied  their  body  to  show  a  single  act  of  the  General 
Government  that  was  intended  to  oppress  or  injure  the  people 
of  the  South,  whose  leading  men  had  long  before  determined 
on  a  dissolution  of  the  Union,  for  no  better  reason  than  the  one 
stated  by  John  C.  Calhoun  more  than  thirty  years  ago.  He 
then  said  their  system  of  Slavery  was  an  aristocratic  system, 
and  that  they  were  an  aristocratic  people,  and  that  so  long  as 
they  could  control  the  action  of  the  General  Government  they 

would  remain  in  it,  but  when  they  could  not,  they  would  break 
it  up. 

This  they  are  now  trying  to  do  by  any  and  all  means  in  their 
power. 

To  prevent  them  from  bringing  upon  our  country,  and  tha 
world  such  a  calamity,  our  Government  will  be  fully  justified 
in  holding  out  every  inducement  to  slaves  of  Rebels  to  join  our 
army  to  fight  for  their  freedom  and  independence. 

The  policy  of  employing  the  negroes  in^our  defence,  if  I  am 
not  mistaken,  is  demanded  by  the  highest  interests  of  the  South 
as  well  as  by  the  North. 

I  believe  that  ten  years  will  not  pass  before  the  people  of  the 
South  will  erect  monuments  to  commemorate  their  'deliverance 
from  the  blight  of  Slavery. 

They  will  verify  the  truth  of  what  Homer  declared  two  thou¬ 
sand  six  hundred  years  ago,  when  he  said  that 


“  Whatever  day  makes  man  a  slave 
Takes  half  his  worth  away.” 

I,  for  one,  envy  not  the  man  who,  to  save"a  nation’s  life,  will 
not  say  :  Perish  Slavery — perish  all  that  jstands  in  the  way  of 
maintaining  the  freedom  and  independence  that  our  Union  ivas 
intended  to  secure . 

Hoping  that  our  Government  will  always  contend  for  those 
measures  best  calculated  to  establish  justice  and  promote  the 
general  welfare,  I  remain, 

With  great  respect,  your  friend, 

Peter  Cooper. 


